Malaysians should change their mindset and rent houses for a longer period instead of buying them at a young age so as to avoid being trapped in a huge long-term debt, says Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani (pictured).

“Opening our mindset is not easy. Why? It is in our culture … we don’t believe in renting [the property] for 20 to 30 years,” said Johari at a dialogue session on the “Transformasi Nasional 2050” (TN2050) vision at the finance ministry.

Malaysia’s house price index grew by 5.3% in the fourth quarter last year (4Q2016) from the corresponding period of 2015, according to Knight Frank’s “Global House Price Index Q4 2016” report.

The index monitors and compares the performance of mainstream residential markets in 55 countries across the world, 11 of which are from Asia-Pacific. Malaysia is ranked 27th among all the countries.

Knight Frank Malaysia Sdn Bhd executive director of research and consultancy Judy Ong Mei Chen said the house price index in the country continues to grow but the pace of growth has slowed down owing to the slew of cooling measures introduced by the government to curb speculation in the property sector.

Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O), which share price surged to a two-year high yesterday, is believed to have found a strategic investor who will pump in fresh capital to kick-start its second massive land reclamation project Phase 2A of the Seri Tanjung Pinang (STP) development.

According to sources, a large local fund has been in talks with E&O on taking up an equity stake in the sea-fronting development project near Penang island. The project, Phase 2A, involves reclaiming 253 acres (102.38ha) of land, which has an estimated gross development value of RM20 billion.